Not Saving Private Ryan

Rating: 6/10 (19 December 2002)

Comparisons with SPR are pretty meaningless, as that film was not about D-Day, it was not an attempt at accurate historical reconstruction, and it was made very recently. So The Longest Day stands or falls on its own. And on its own it is a brave, indeed impressive attempt to portray something that simply can't be done on a film. Because it tries to show everything, it is inevitably episodic, and unless you know the details of the story first, pretty hard to work out who is who and what they are doing. So I think it is no surprise that my 14 year old son didn't enjoy as much as I did.
But that said, its use of different languages, its lack of American jingoism, some marvellous scenes, and the sheer scale of the whole effort make it worth seeing.